Quick report
- Aspect
- North
- Elevation
- 3078 m
- Slope Angle
- 18°
Total height of snow was 5.5' (169 cm). The snowpack in this location was deep. This was representative of lower angle north facing slopes that have have not avalanched yet this season. In this snowpit we did not get any propagation with an extended column test and the layer of concern was sugary facets under wind drifted snow 12" (29cm) down from the surface. On south facing slopes directly across the drainage at the same elevation the snow depth ranged from 2'-3' with grass and sage poking through the snowpack.
Just to the east of this snowpit on the we observed a natural avalanche that had occurred sometime in the last 7-10 days and thinner snowpack areas like this will be more suspect if we add more snow and wind in the future.
Zoomed in photo of crown face
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>We were still finding dry facets near the ground in thinner snowpack areas on all aspects at mid and high elevations. </p> <p>We saw lots of signs of old wind-drifted snow and we found an isolated wind drift on a 28° east facing slope at 8,900' in elevation that shattered around our sleds, 4" deep and isolated to where we were traveling. From what we saw it doesn't take much new snow (1") or light winds (5-10MPH) to create wind drifts. </p> <p> </p>
Snow surface was mostly wind crust with more wind affected snow above 9,800' in elevation and in exposed drainage bottoms.
Photo (Miller) of snow surface in Miller Flat